Loot Shoot Lane – A Blizzard Fancast

Some friends like to get together for a pizza once in a while – We’re not those kind of friends. Instead of the pizza we decided to start a passion project revolving around our favorite game developer. This is Loot Shoot Lane a fancast dedicated to Blizzard Entertainment. If you think we’re fan boys, you’re probably right. Hosted by Cade & Matte, you can write into the show via lootshootlane@ninjapancake.com or follow us on Twitter @LootShootLane

Welcome back to Loot, Shoot and Lane! Stay awhile and listen as we hear an update on the adventures of Toons in the world of Sanctuary, we contemplate how Diablo will fit into our coming days but it is a flame that shall still burn deep in our hearts. The the usual chit chat with Neo and his adventure in the Nexus and a quick update on how his team is doing in Chairleague. Oh the suspense! We’re all sure he’ll go pro!
Then it’s the true focus of our gaming and podcasting endeavors as of late…. I bet you’ll be surprised to find out we still love it and we just want to play and have fun with our friends, we’re non-toxic. Try hards need not apply.

It’s the night before Overwatch and all through the internets everyone was hype AF to get in on the action… or something. Before we get into that, let’s check in with the boys and see who’s completed their first 6 piece sets in the new Diablo season. Someone may have leveled a WD for fun, we’ll never tell who. Except we do! That being said, Neo clues us into what’s been going on in the his particular corner of Heroes of the Storm. Neo and Toons are still sporting an excitement level for Overwatch, which is currently over 9,000. We’re stepping back a week in time to pretend Overwatch isn’t out or your game of the year pick yet. It may be because this episode is late, it may not be because of that. You’ll never know. So let’s remember that level of anticipation together, shall we? There, wasn’t that fun?

It finally happened. We were able to sneak away for about an hour with all the busyness and goings on in our lives to talk Blizzard. This week in our Diablo talks, Neo admits he’s completely forgotten the basics of gameplay. He’s currently hoping that Toons will carry him. Hardcore deaths are hardcore. Toons does have goals this season and we’re both trying to figure out where Diablo will fit in our gaming schedules moving forward. If you’re interested in the loose goings ons in Heroes of The Storm in the next few months, we’ve got a little insight there for you as well. As per usual, Neo complains about potatoes. Don’t forget his mantra: Boil’em, Mash’em, Stick’em in a stew and remember to keep them away from his matchmaking. We’re also not ones to gush but we really fell in love with the Overwatch Open Beta and have a lot to say. We’re going over our favorite maps, characters, team comps and moments so far. Long story short, we’re really looking forward to launch. Along with playing Overwatch, talking about Overwatch and even reading about Overwatch. Can you tell we liked the Overwatch Open Beta? Check us on the social medias to catch us streaming over the next few weeks. Dig the show? Leave us a rating/review on the Tunes of i. okayiluvyoubuhbye

We’re back and talking about the impending Season 6 Diablo start, Neo is, as per usual, unimpressed with something and it’s decided it would take an Amon Amarth shirt for his DH to make him work for that 300 kills in a single chest conquest! Toons however thinks it’s all pretty keen and is excited to possibly make a triumphant return to his Barbarian roots, bloody roots. There is discussion on how important drafting and team comp can be in a MOBA or even a Hero Brawler™ it seemed as sage-like wisdom at the time, dropping those nuggets of truth… or something. This leads us to then wax ecstatically about missed opportunities and kids today being spoiled for opportunities at pro gaming, I mean, kids today, amirite? After bantering a bit back and forth about how we will strategically approach Overwatch and arguing the merits of the various support characters, we take a sidebar about fashion and hairstyling! Honestly, that’s super important. Get your own bloody roots started today and check out some of the games we love talking about on the show.

And for your enhanced listening pleasure some of the outro may or may not have been Redacted.

We do enjoy a good conversation involving comparing and contrasting. We’re starting this how a little different this week and between the two of our combined gaming experience we felt like it would be a good topic this week. What we decided to do was look at games of yore versus days of modern times. How are these games we used to play compared to now? Do they scratch the itch as well? Are we just chasing Blizzard dragons? When we go into our normal show topics, we’re excited for Diablo 3. The new season will be starting next week, giving us something to do again. It may even last longer for us than a couple of weeks! Later we jump into the Heroes of the Storm talking points and Tracer is now in the Nexus. Well, she’s there if you pre-orderded Overwatch. If you haven’t yet, what are you thinking? Matte talks about Tracer’s play style in Heroes and what she’s all about. While Overwatch is gone for the time being, there’s a lot to look forward to. We go over a recent GameSpot series where they looked at some of the longer standing Blizzard employees. These folks a lot of us owe much of our gaming happiness to. We enjoy the fact that to do this day Blizzard’s titles are easily accessible. Making it great for groups of friends to jump in and play together. We’re fan boys and we’ll probably keep chasing Blizzard dragons for a long time.

Diablo Season 5 is over so we discuss how the season finished out for us and our plans heading into season 6 at the end of the month. Have you made your plan for battle for the upcoming season? HoTS has Matte on bit of a salty streak with bad games this week but Chair League has started again. Matte is thankful that it’s much more organized this time around. ASU won the Heroes of The Dorm competition but neither of us actually got to watch the finals. Matte played some Paragon and that looked semi-interesting. You know, for a game that isn’t made by Blizzard. Our big news this week is that both of us finally got into the Beta. Beta Overwatch us! We even got to play with some of our friends too! We’re discussing the things we liked and a few things we liked less. All this and more in the sixth installment of Loot, Shoot, Lane!

Matte is sick but we made him record anyways. It’s that time of year again and Blizzcon was announced – Let those F5 keys reign supreme! While we won’t be able to go, we hope those of you heading to Blizzcon get there safely. Diablo Season 5 is almost over and we discuss how the season went for us. Matte tells an awesome story for us this week about the most troll game he’s ever had in HoTS. This ends up leading us in a discussion about some of the professional tournament caveats. If you were looking to get into Heroes, now is a great time! This weekend all heroes are unlocked and free experience bonus for Heroes of The Storm. On the Overwatch front, competitive mode is going to be a thing. We’re really excited about this. Everyone starts in potato league at the bottom, where they belong. If you’ve been following closely another Overwatch short was released and we think it’s great. Can you feel the excitement reaching its capacity? We sure as hell can. We also get a little sidetracked this episode discussing hackers, cheaters, and the differences between platforms. Enjoy!